NTC to look at Shin deal
The national telecom regulator will seek information from government agencies as part of its inquiry to determine if the sale of Shin Corp by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's family to Temasek Holdings has breached any of its regulations.
The move follows a request from civic groups, led by the Federation of Consumer Organisations, to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to scrutinise the deal and terminate all concessions of Shin and its subsidiaries because the firms are no longer qualified under the telecom law. The groups said Shin and its subsidiaries were now under the foreign control. The Telecom Law caps foreign holdings in local telecom firms at 49 per cent, a recent change from the previous 25-per-cent limit. The Shinawatra family sold its 49.6-per-cent stake in Shin last month to Singapore's state investment agency Temasek and some local allies. The NTC said in its statement yesterday that it would seek information from the Commerce Ministry to see if Shin and its subsidiaries were "foreign-owned businesses" under the ministry's Alien Business Law. It said that terminating any concessions held by Shin or its subsidiaries and scrutiny of their concession fee payments were matters for their concession grantors such as TOT Plc, CAT Telecom Plc, and the Information and Communications Technology Ministry. The NTC said it asked TOT, CAT, and the ICT Ministry last week to see if the Shin takeover would affect its concessions.
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